Spent the day on the pond.....

I spent the day on the lake today, never got a bite! I went with a friend to Cedar Lake in Southern Illinois. Thanks to a calm night and overnight lows of 16 degrees, we had to break ice for a little over an hour to get to open water. I think we needed our heads examined! By afternoon it had warmed up nicely and a light breeze was blowing. This allowed the lake to thaw considerably. The ride back to the ramp was a lot quicker in the afternoon, it took about ten minutes. I shot a little video as we were leaving the ramp, actually it was about twenty five minutes into the trip...I think my comment at the end of the video says a lot! lol. Until it warms up some, I think I will stay at the house.
God Bless,
D

A little classroom session with the Rotary Club...

I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the Cape Girardeau, MO Rotary Club today. What great group of people, it was a good time. I guess if you call listening to me talk about professional fishing a good time? I do! No, all kidding aside, I had a good time and got to meet some really fine folks. Again, thanks to the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club, and Mike Radake for inviting me to speak.
God Bless,
D

Number 2000

Waterfowl season is over, well, over today to be exact, but for all practical purposes it ended last Saturday when our geese began to migrate back northward. The last week was pretty slow, mostly unforgetable, with the exception of one thing, Calli made her 2000th retreive in the field. 2000th lifetime retreive that is, which caused a little celebration in the pit. So I grabbed the camera and we shot a few pictures. I know there are a lot of dogs who have retrieved more times than this, but I've kept records since she started hunting and the incredible part is of 2000 retrieves, she has only failed to find approximately seventy-five birds. We hunt standing flooded corn, which can be challenging for a retriever, but she has made it look easy. Here's a picture of number 2000, and a thanks to all who came and hunted with us during the 09-10 season at Pike's Hunting Club.

God Bless,

Duke

(check out the right leg of the goose...see anything shiny?)

Shining like a new penny...

I picked up my boat today from the dedalership, complete with a new Yamaha VMAX HPDI Series 2 motor. Man, that new motor looks good. I can't wait to get it out on the pond!

I couldn't resist, I had to take a picture of it before I left the dealer....to quote Clark Griswald's dad from the movie Christmas Vacation...."It's a beaut!!"

A day off!!! Well, sort of...

I got a day off...well from hunting anyway. We didn't have any hunters coming in today, so I came home to Pinckneyville and took care of some domestic duties. You know, like paying some bills. Yuck. I did get to sleep in, I woke up at 6:45 this morning, thats 2 + hours past normal, very nice!

I managed to get some pictures from the field, the whole video thing has wore me out. I just can't manage to get it done. Between calling at the ducks or geese, keeping hid so they don't see me, telling my hunters where the birds are, so they can get ready if they come in...well you get the idea. Apparently, I have a limit to my multi-tasking.

I hope ya'll have a Happy New Year!

God Bless,

D

Here's a picture of my best friend in the goose pit with me...

(Calli is her name)

Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas to everyone...Hope everyone has a great holiday.

Take a minute and remember the reason for the season, we all have been given a tremendous gift!

Nothing like Sleeping in...

I didn't have any hunters today, so I got to sleep in, and at approximately 5 am, I got a phone call. One of my friends wanted to know how the hunting had been, that's what I call bad timing, real bad timing. The last 12 days of duck hunting have been great. I haven't got any video from the duck blind yet, hopefully I'll have some before Christmas.

Regardlees of the 5am wake-up call, I still got to sleep in an extra hour and a half past normal. So that was nice. I did manage to get a few things done today, I dropped my boat off at Nameoki Village Marine in Granite City, IL I'm going to have a new 200 horsepower Yamaha HPDI put on my boat. I'll be set to jet for next year's tournament season.

That's all I have for now, if you're in the Southern Illinois area and you'd like to do some duck hunting, give Terry a call at Pike's Hunnting Club 618.997.1124 He'll hook ya up

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas,
Duke

The ducks have arrived...

It's been a few days sine I last posted, mostly due to 3:30 a.m. wake up calls and 7:30 p.m. bedtimes...I know, what a life...oh well, the ducks don't mind! It has been absolutely incredible the last 7 days in the field. The ducks are migrating like crazy, I have had some phenominally large groups of ducks working the field. It has been an incredible sight!
Well, it's officially past my bedtime...by a bunch, it's 8:15 right now and I'm fighting to stay awake while I type this. Hope all is well. I'm going to try and post some videos from the Duck pit in the next few days...til then
God Bless,
Duke

Got some video footage from the end of the fishing season....

I was surfing the net for my final quarterly report and found some video footage from the last couple of fishing tournaments of the year...check 'em out see what you think...

www.youtube.com/user/SportsTalkAndReports#p/u/1/5bd6vMAjH2E

Angler's Channel.com covered the PAA tournaments, here's an interview from the Toledo Bend event in October:

http://www.anglerschannel.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=radio.home&filename=2009-10-09-08-paa.wmv




They sure must have been hurting for some footage!! Haha, oh well the interviews are kind of neat!
God Bless,
D

Duck Season is ten days old...

Actually, counting today, we have completed eleven of the sixty days of duck season. How did the first eleven days go you ask? I'll give it a D+. I've hunted just about every day, only missed a couple, three to be exact, and only a couple of days were very good. We got a small migration on last Tuesday, a few more on Wednesday, and then here came the 70 degree, calm, sunny weather. Not real "ducky" weather, more like crappie fishing weather, and the birds did not fly, at all. I had some friends come in from North Carolina on Friday and Saturday, which after last Tuesday's migration, I thought we'd be in good shape. Definitely not the case, when you have a greater risk of sunburn than you do of getting a duck, you know it's going to be a long day in the duck blind when that happens.
Well, that's all for now, it seems we must have picked up some new birds last night/yesterday, cause we whacked them pretty good today, they must have been new to the area. The ducks that are already here are pretty smart!
I'll keeo you posted on how things are going in the field.
God Bless,
Duke